10.1184/R1/6509564.v1 Markus Deserno Markus Deserno When do fluid membranes engulf sticky colloids? Carnegie Mellon University 2004 Physics 2004-05-01 00:00:00 Journal contribution https://kilthub.cmu.edu/articles/journal_contribution/When_do_fluid_membranes_engulf_sticky_colloids_/6509564 <p>Binding of a spherical colloid to a fluid membrane, which is an interplay between the energies of adhesion and elastic deformation, is studied within the framework of a Helfrich Hamiltonian. The solution of the full nonlinear shape equations for the membrane profile reveals a continuous binding and a discontinuous envelopment transition, the latter with a tension dependent substantial energy barrier. In the bending dominated regime this scenario is analytically confirmed by a small gradient expansion.</p>